Hey guys:

I wanted to pick your knowledgeable brains. We have a two-year-old
ferret suffering from an unknown illness/condition.

We got Marten and his brother from Petco in February 2010; at the time,
he was nine months old. By June, we noticed he was having trouble
getting up the stairs. He literally had to pull himself up because his
back legs weren't strong enough. Within another few months, he had
abandoned stairs altogether. He now resides on the second story and
only comes downstairs when we carry him.

He walks like an old man, very unsteady on his feet. It seems like his
back legs have continued to weaken; when he walks his front paws have
begun curling over. He falls over easily, too.

Our vet ran the full range of tests on him twice: X-rays, bloodwork,
you name it. The vet is puzzled; at this point we're calling it a
degenerative disc disease (the X-rays showed no sign of arthritis).
I give him a bit of powdered taurine, carnitine, and glucosamine with
his daily Ferretvite.

Has anybody ever seen a condition like this? Any ideas what we're
dealing with, or if we should be doing something different?

Thanks for any advice!

Laura
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[Posted in FML 7122]